Rembert named to first team; Merriweather selected to all-freshman squad; Riley honored with newcomer of the year award

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. ( March 3, 2014) – The ETSU men’s basketball team has enjoyed quite a turnaround from its 2012-13 season, and a trio of Buccaneers were honored Monday for their contributions to those successes by being named to various All Atlantic Sun Conference teams.

In a vote of the league’s head coaches, junior guard Rashawn Rembert (Tampa, Fla.) was named first-team All A-Sun, freshman guard A.J. Merriweather (Jackson) was voted to the league’s all-freshman team, and junior guard Jalen Riley (Racine, Wisc.) was picked as the A-Sun’s Newcomer of the Year.

Rembert led all scorers in A-Sun play at 18.3 PPG, as he connected on 3.4 three pointers against conference foes. His 96 three's made this season is tied for 10th most in the A-Sun record books, and his 43.4 percent shooting from behind the arc ranked first in the A-Sun. Meanwhile, Riley added more scoring punch to the Buccaneer line-up this season as he registered 12.7 PPG in only 19.8 minutes per game and shot 86.2 percent from the charity stripe; second-best in the league. Riley increased his scoring to 13.1 PPG in league play as he came off the bench in all but one game this season. As for Merriweather, he continues to lead the Bucs in rebounding and steals per game, and has ranked as one of the squad’s top scorers all season.

As for the rest of the league, Mercer's Langston Hall joined teammate Daniel Coursey and Head Coach Bob Hoffman in the spotlight. Hall, the 2014 A-Sun Player of the Year, guided the Bears to a 14-4 conference record and a share of the conference regular-season title. Hall led the A-Sun in assists (5.5), free-throw percentage (86.5), while ranking sixth in scoring (14.9) and second for steals (1.5). The senior point guard enters the A-Sun Championship with 603 career assists; second-most in conference history. Hall is the fourth student-athlete from Mercer to land the A-Sun Player of the Year accolade and first since Kenny Brown in 1993.

FGCU's Bernard Thompson and Brett Comer accompanied Hall on the First Team All-Conference after sharing the regular-season title with Mercer. Thompson averaged 15.6 points per game in conference play including 1.8 steals against league foes. His 199 career steals are 16th-most in conference history. Comer increased his scoring by six points this season to 14.2 PPG - eighth-best in the conference - while dishing out 5.4 assists each contest; trailing only Hall in the A-Sun. The junior guard owns 588 career assists; fourth-most in league history.

USC Upstate's Torrey Craig became the eighth player in A-Sun history to land on the A-Sun All-Conference First Team on three occasions with his selection this season. Craig owns 2,084 career points - fourth-most all-time in the conference - as he averaged a league-best 16.9 PPG. His 7.1 RPG sits fourth-best as he tallied 32.6 minutes per game; second-most among A-Sun student-athletes.

Coursey picked up the A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year award as the senior forward swatted an A-Sun high 61 shots; good for two per game. His 194 career blocks are fourth best in the A-Sun record books. Coursey pulled down 6.7 rebounds per outing this year; fourth-highest in the league.

North Florida's Dallas Moore landed the A-Sun Freshman of the Year distinction as the St. Petersburg, Fla. native averaged 12.5 PPG and 2.6 APG, while shooting 78 percent from the free-throw line. Moore was one of two unanimous choices to the All-Freshman team with Lipscomb's J.C. Hampton, who led all freshmen in scoring at 14.7 PPG.

For the second-straight season, Hoffman was tabbed as the A-Sun Coach of the Year. He becomes the first head coach since College of Charleston's John Kresse in 1998 to win the award in back-to-back seasons.

Landing on the Second Team All-Conference was FGCU's Chase Fieler, Jacksonville's Jarvis Haywood and Keith McDougald, USC Upstate's Ricardo Glenn and North Florida's Travis Wallace. Lipscomb's Josh Williams, Stetson's Brian Pegg and Merriweather joined Moore and Hampton on the All-Freshman squad.

The 2014 Atlantic Sun Men's Basketball Championship begins on Tuesday, March 4th with four quarterfinal contests at ETSU, FGCU, Mercer and USC Upstate.

For more on ETSU men’s basketball throughout the postseason, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the men’s hoops link.